18983: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Uprising (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   CAP-HAITIEN, Feb 22 (AP) -- Rebels on Sunday attacked the government's
last major stronghold in the north, Cap-Haitien, and witnesses reported
heavy gunfire and explosions as the insurgents pushed toward the city
center.
   Smoke billowed from the Cap-Haitien airport, where a manager with
Tropical Airways said rebels commandeered a plane. The telephone line was
cut before Allen Alexandre could say more.
   Gunfire swelled near the center and shouting, panicked residents fled
from the streets. There were unconfirmed reports that rebels had freed
prisoners from a jail in one of four police compounds.
   Witnesses said rebels had advanced from Cap-Haitien's south, where
gunmen loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide set up burning barricades.
   Rebel leader Guy Philippe had threatened for days to attack Cap-Haitien,
the country's second-largest city. The mayor, Wilmar Innocent, has said 180
police were protecting the city, but it wasn't clear if they were
responding to the attack.
   In recent days, frightened officers bolted themselves in behind the
walled compound of their police station, and told reporters they had
neither the firepower nor the numbers to repulse the rebels. That had left
control in the hands of Aristide loyalists who have torched their
opponents' homes and terrorized the population. On Saturday, they shot and
wounded a Haitian journalist.
   The rebels have captured several towns in Haiti's north since they rose
up on Feb. 5. The uprising has killed about 60 people, about two-thirds of
them police.
   The rebel attack puts added pressure on politicians negotiating a
U.S.-backed international peace plan that would leave Aristide as president
but force him to share power with his political rivals.
   A diplomatic delegation left Haiti Saturday night after failing to
persuade Aristide's political opponents to accept the plan, which would
require the two sides to share power.
   Aristide, who would remain president under the plan, said he agreed to a
new prime minister and government to organize elections.
   But he declared he would "not go ahead with any terrorists," meaning he
would not negotiate with the rebels.
   The opposition politicians are not allied with the rebels, but both want
to see Aristide step down. The political opponents met with foreign envoys
Saturday and promised to deliver a formal response to the peace proposal by
5 p.m. Monday.
   One of the gang leaders who began the rebellion asked where the plan
left him.
   "What about me? When the international community come into Haiti ...
they (will) take my gun," Buteur Metayer told Associated Press Television
News in Gonaives, the biggest city held by the rebels. "He (Aristide is)
going to kill me."
   Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell of the Bahamas remained optimistic that
the opposition could be won over, telling reporters, "While we did not get
a yes, we did not get a no."
   The United States has urged citizens to leave the country amid mounting
violence by Aristide militants in government-held areas.
   Throughout the recent bloodshed, Aristide, who has survived three
assassination attempts and a coup d'etat, has said he will not step down
before his term ends in 2006.
   "Aristide has systematically broken his promises. Why should anyone
believe him now?" asked lawyer Bernard Gousse, from a coalition of 184
civil groups in the Democratic Platform coalition.
   Aristide accuses his political opponents of supporting the rebellion.
His government spokesman, Mario Dupuy, said that with the plan "the
opposition has a chance to prove it is not in favor of violence and
terrorism."
   Opposition leaders said the plan does not address how to halt the
uprising and disarm rebels and militants.